A stalwart consigned to the endless cycle of battle, he enjoys dueling with stronger foes.

—Description

Garland is one of the villains fighting for the side of Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy. He is the antagonist representing the original Final Fantasy. Garland is a being consumed by battle and conflict, and is willing to accept his fate of eternal battle. He wields a large sword that can freely transform into various weapons, from a destructive axe to twin blades. Due to his connection to Chaos, Garland is one of the game's higher-ranked villains. His position as Chaos's right-hand warrior can be seen as analogous to the one his rival, Warrior of Light, has with Cosmos.

While the Warrior of Light is his rival in the original Dissidia, his main rival in the 012 storyline is Lightning. This rivalry is even featured in the game's opening FMV.

Contents

Attire

Garland's original outfit is based on his in-game sprite from the original release of Final Fantasy. Garland wears a dark blue cape with silver armor set with blue jewels, and wears his distinctive horned helmet. Tetsuya Nomura has stated that, because there were only in-game sprites to draw from, he had trouble designing Garland as a character, as in essence it was designing a new character rather than redesigning an old one, but he had to maintain the idea that it was still the original Garland fans would recognize from the original Final Fantasy.

Garland's first alternate outfit, "Stalwart's Armor", is an original palette swap, which colors his cape burgundy and his armor gold. The cape's coloring is reminiscent of Garland's sprites in remakes of Final Fantasy. His EX Mode gives his cape a cream coloration with red runes.

Garland's second alternate outfit, "Discord Incarnate," gives him the appearance of Yoshitaka Amano's "Cloudsea Djinn," Garland's original design. Garland wears no armor, revealing black skin with gray claws, his eyes are blank white, and he wears a headpiece with horns of various length and design. He also has long white hair and spikes emerging from his shoulders. In his EX Mode Garland turns a lighter shade of gray. Garland's sword in this outfit is a different shape from his other outfits, and is light gray and white with cracks along its length. It turns black with orange cracks in his EX Mode, appearing to be made out of rock and magma.

Garland's sword and its forms.

Garland's sword is an entirely original design. It is a crushing weapon with seemingly no cutting ability like a proper sword. Garland drags the sword behind him and swings his entire body around to attack with it, likely due to the blade's massive size and weight. Its default form is a greatsword made up of several interlocking plates with a long handle. The sword can shift into an axe by folding the blade forward, a portion of the sword can separate on its own interior handle for Garland to dual-wield, the entire sword can extend on a chain from the handle and be flung about, and the plates can lengthen and extend to form a longer, lance-like weapon. Garland uses all five forms of the weapon in battle and shifts freely between them when attacking. In general, the axe form is used for slamming attacks, the twin swords for combo attacks, the flail form for long ranged attacks, and the lance form for charging attacks.

Story

Garland, a Knight of Cornelia who fell from grace and was trapped in an eternal time loop, he was eventually freed and summoned to World B by Shinryu. Encountering Cid of the Lufaine, he agreed to coerce Chaos into fighting against Cosmos due to the connection he felt with Chaos, and stood by the God of Discord throughout the Cycles.

During a previous cycle, Garland and Prishe briefly encounter each other, and fought over the custody of the newly summoned Warrior of Light. Garland recognized the Warrior and warned Prishe she couldn't understand his true nature, but Prishe was victorious and the Warrior of Light was taken back to Order's Sanctuary to join Cosmos. Sometime after, Garland confronts Shantotto and was the last one to see her before she leaves World B via a doorway to the Rift.

Twelfth cycle

In Prologus, Garland is the first Warrior of Chaos Lightning faces. He and the Emperor mock her and the Warrior of Light for waiting for them to make the next move. After the battle, Garland is disappointed about the short battle and tells Lightning and Warrior they will meet again, since the battle has just begun.

Garland is later seen confronting Lightning, seeing no point in fighting her and leaves her for the manikins to hunt, while telling her most of her allies have already been dealt with by the strange beings. Before leaving, Garland explains the manikins bypass the gods' power to revive the fallen, and thus they can end the existence of a warrior of either side for good.

Later, Garland is seen with the Emperor, who is talking to Chaos, and suggesting Jecht should be converted into a Chaos warrior. Garland is taken aback by the idea, but Chaos eventually relents and channels his energy into the fallen Jecht.

Finally, Garland serves as the final boss of the main story of Dissidia 012. After Laguna leads the party to a portal to the Rift from which the manikins have been emerging, the Emperor, the Cloud of Darkness, Ultimecia, Garland and Kefka teleport in to stop the heroes from destroying the portal. Lightning battles Garland alone for the final match, after which the five villains teleport away so the manikins can finish the conflict for them.

Thirteenth cycle

Garland facing off against Cloud.

Early into the Warrior of Light's journey, Garland arrives and challenges him to battle. Garland is defeated, but he tells the Warrior that fighting back is pointless, and fades away. Believing Garland dead, the Warrior of Light journeys on, but Garland survives. Sephiroth questions Garland about the memories they have lost, and asks about a dragon with an unearthly glow he saw when he awoke, but Garland does not answer him.

Garland confronts Ultimecia about her manipulations of Squall, and she reveals she has her own plans separate from the Emperor, and asks Garland to assist her. Later, when Cloud defeats Sephiroth and claims his Crystal, Garland speaks to the Emperor, and the two agree that Sephiroth may become a threat to the Emperor's plan. Later, the two meet again to discuss Terra's shaky alliance to Cosmos due to her lack of light, and Kefka's plans to bring her back into the fold.

Squall arrives to battle Ultimecia and Garland approaches, intending for Squall to fight both of them. However, Zidane appears and fights Garland so that Squall may face Ultimecia alone. Squall defeats Ultimecia, but Garland only thanks Zidane for the battle and leaves after Ultimecia falls. After, the Warrior of Light defeats the Emperor and Garland appears before him, telling the shocked knight that he cannot be defeated, and invites the Warrior of Light to follow him to discover the war's true nature. Before their final battle, Garland lectures Kuja about fate, telling him they all share the same destiny, including Ultimecia. He also speaks to Sephiroth again, who questions Garland's ability to be revived despite numerous defeats.

When the Warrior of Light arrives at the Chaos Shrine, Garland tells the Warrior the reason he came back to life was because of Chaos, and reveals the true nature of the gods' conflict. Garland encourages the Warrior of Light to submit to the cycle of war, but he refuses and the two battle again. Garland is defeated and the Warrior of Light claims his Crystal, but Garland goads him, telling him the Crystals have the power to stop the cycle, and even the gods cannot foresee what would become of the world if the Crystals were brought together. Some time after this, it is revealed by the Emperor that he, Garland, and the other warriors of Chaos had allowed themselves to be defeated intentionally in order to ensure that the Warriors of Cosmos received the Crystals, as per their plan.

After Cosmos's death at the hands of Chaos, Garland oversees his god's slumber. Sephiroth also questions Garland about the lost memories he has regained, asking what Garland's desire is once Chaos is destroyed. Garland rejects the idea, claiming he is a prisoner to the cycle of war and has no right to desire anything else. While with Golbez, Garland reveals the world to be a testing ground for Chaos and how he had arranged it under Cid's instructions, though telling Golbez he cannot leave the cycle even if he wanted to, he expresses an interest on its disbursal.

When Chaos awakens and describes a peculiar dream in which he governed the world harmoniously with Cosmos, Garland reveals such was the way things were in World B before the conflict between harmony and disorder, and that he himself had instigated the conflict in accordance to the Great Will. Garland tells Chaos he is predestined to be sent 2,000 years into the past by God of Discord, becoming Chaos himself—their fates intertwined as Chaos would subconsciously convince Garland to take the path leading to his eventual change.

As the Warriors of Cosmos approach Chaos's domain in the Land of Discord, Garland stands as the final villain alive before he is defeated and reveals how Chaos now plans to destroy World B with the cycle finally broken. Though the heroes question Garland's acceptance of this, Garland tells them his spirit will endure the world's destruction, and eventually he will find another cycle as he fades while vowing he and the heroes will meet again. Though revived by Shinryu, Garland learns too late that Shinryu is now involving itself in the conflict's final battle.

In "Gabranth's Quest 000: One Who Faces Hell", during an unspecified earlier cycle Gabranth becomes disillusioned with the cycle when he realizes the losers are purified of memories. Refusing to fight as there is no point to battling an endless battle, Garland attacks Gabranth when he threatens to kill Chaos if the god forces him to fight. Garland mocks Gabranth and encourages to use up all his strength in the fight so he will not be revived in the next cycle, and when Gabranth responds by attempting to kill himself he is consumed by the Rift. Garland tells the Emperor that this is the fate of those who defy the will of the gods, to be cast into the Rift until they submit to the cycle and are willing to return to fight again.

In "Shantotto's Quest 000: The Seeker's Destination", Garland encounters Shantotto after she destroys a gateway, seeking to create a temporal distortion with its destruction strong enough to open a portal to the Rift so she can escape the cycle. Garland battles her and claims there is no escape, but Shantotto's guess proves accurate when a portal opens and she enters the Rift. In "Prishe's Quest 000: The Defeat of Cosmos", Garland confronts Cosmos himself, seeking to discover if even a god will be purified and reborn if slain. Garland kills Cosmos, but true to his suspicions she is purified and revived in the next cycle.

During the 12th cycle in "Cloud's Quest 012: You Should Have Disappeared", Garland intervenes when Sephiroth challenges Cloud, telling the two conflict between allies will not be tolerated. Cloud follows Garland when he leaves and challenges him, but Garland holds back, refusing to go all-out as there is no point to them killing each other. He also warns Cloud his potentially traitorous actions during the 12th cycle have been noticed by the other Warriors of Chaos. In "Sephiroth's Quest 012: The Hero's Memory", the Emperor witnesses Sephiroth commit suicide as he seeks to uncover the truth of the cycle of war, and he and Garland reflect on possible reasons why Sephiroth was able to do this when Gabranth failed.

Spoilers end here.

Battle

In battle Garland is described as a Nemesis, meaning he uses his huge sword to crush his opponents with powerful attacks. His sword will automatically shifts into different forms while attacking, and some of his attacks vary depending on the timing of the button inputs, allowing Garland to alter the effects of his attacks quickly. Garland is most powerful in melee combat, but he has several charging attacks that allow him to attack opponents from a distance. A drawback is that Garland is a slow mover, and most of his melee attacks can be blocked.

Bravery Attacks

Garland spins forward in a circle to hit the opponent twice, then brings his sword down. If is pressed before the last hit connects, Garland will turn his sword into its axe form and swing upwards to send the opponent flying. If is pressed after the last hit connects, Garland will turn his sword into two and strike the opponent with a four hit combo.

Deathblow

Ground

20 (10)

90

Melee Low

None

Physical

Initial

Garland steps forward and swings his sword upwards to knock the opponent into the air.

Lance Charge

Ground

30 (15)

120

Melee Mid

Wall Rush

Physical

Level 8

Garland turns his sword into a spear and charges forward. If it hits, Garland will jump up and slam the opponent down. The charge staggers the opponent if blocked and Garland can still execute the second part of the attack.

Highbringer

Ground

30 (15)

120

Melee Low

ChasePressWall RushHold

Physical

Level 24

Garland dashes forward and swings his sword up. Depending on how long is held, the attack results with different continuations. If is pressed, Garland will shoot his blade out on a chain, knocking the opponent higher into the air. If is held, Garland will jump into the air during the uppercut and can follow up with a three-hit combo.

Twin Swords

Aerial

30 (15)

180

Melee Low

Wall Rush

Physical

Initial

Garland turns his sword into two and strikes the opponent multiple times while moving forward.

Chain Cast

Aerial

30 (15)

180

Melee Low

Chase

Physical

Initial

Garland whips his sword out on a chain downwards and then back up to knock his opponent into the air.

Bardiche

Aerial

30 (15)

180

Melee Low

Wall Rush

Physical

Level 3

Garland turns his sword into a deformed axe and swings it downward. This attack slightly homes because Garland will move downward before the attack is performed.

Twist Drill

Aerial

30 (15)

180

Melee Low

Chase

Physical

Level 19

Garland charges upwards on an angle, then shoots his blade out on a chain, knocking the opponent away.

Garland spins forward in a circle to hit the opponent twice, then brings his sword down. If is pressed before the last hit connects, Garland will turn his sword into its axe form and swing upwards to send the opponent flying. If is pressed after the last hit connects, Garland will turn his sword into two and strike the opponent with a four-hit combo.

Deathblow

Ground

20 (10)

90

Melee Low

None

Physical

Initial

Garland charges forward and swings his sword upwards, causing the opponent to be knocked to the sky.

Lance Charge

Ground

30 (15)

100

Melee Mid

Wall Rush

Physical

Level 8

Garland lengthens each section of his sword and charges forward. If the hit connects, Garland will jump up and slam the opponent downward. The charge staggers opponents if blocked and Garland can still execute the second part of the attack.

Garland's sword floats between his arms as lightning bolts come down on his opponent.

Highbringer

Ground

30 (15)

120

Melee Low

ChasePressWall RushHold

Physical

Level 32

Dashes forward and swing his sword up. Depending on how long is held, the attack results with different continuations. If is pressed, Garland will stay on the ground and can follow up by shooting his blade out on a chain, knocking the enemy further into the air. If is held, Garland will leap up into the air during the uppercut and can follow up with a four-hit combo.

Twin Swords

Aerial

30 (15)

100

Melee Low

Wall Rush

Physical

Initial

Garland separates his sword in two and deals multiple blows with each blade while moving forward.

Chain Cast

Aerial

30 (15)

100

Melee Low

Chase

Physical

Initial

Garland extends his sword on a chain and whips it down and back up. Easy to dodge but has long range and can hit opponents above and below Garland.

Bardiche

Aerial

30 (15)

100

Melee Low

Wall Rush

Physical

Level 4

Garland turns his sword into a deformed axe and swings it down on the opponent. This attack slightly homes as Garland will move directly in front of the opponent if the attack is performed.

HP Attacks

Melee HighThe rocks do Magical damage and are of Unblockable priority.

Wall Rush

Physical

Initial

Garland smashes his sword into the ground, causing the ground to erupt into stone spikes. If this move is performed at a ledge, the spikes will appear at the next lower ground. Can damage the opponent and send them flying at close-range.

Garland smashes his sword into the ground, causing the ground to erupt into stone spikes. If this move is performed at a ledge, the spikes will appear at the next lower ground. Can damage the opponent and send them flying at close-range.

Garland's EX Mode is Class Change, where his cape turns white and gains arabesque patterns along the edges. While in EX Mode Garland gains the ability "Indomitable Resolve" preventing him from flinching or being knocked back by an opponent's attacks while executing an attack of his own. He still takes damage from the attack and is only immune to flinching when hit with a Brave attack. HP attacks will still knock him back, but only the HP-damaging part of the attack; HP attacks that inflict Bravery damage will not stun him until the final hit.

Garland's EX Burst is Soul of Chaos, where he knocks his foe back and raises his sword. The player must press repeatedly to fill a meter on the screen as Garland charges energy. If filled, Garland will repeatedly attack his opponent with twin swords, hits them several times with the chain, stabs them with the spear, then swings his axe downwards hitting the opponent multiple times. He ends the EX Burst by spinning to unleash two powerful sword blows.

Allusions

At the start of Destiny Odyssey I-5, Garland's quote "You will meet your end here, and I will live forever!" is based on what he says in Final Fantasy before the final battle after transforming into Chaos.

In his battle dialogue with Kuja, the two make reference to Kuja's antagonistic relationship with the Garland of Final Fantasy IX. Garland says, "I sense you are haunted by your fate", referring to the mortality Garland placed upon Kuja. His dialogue to Zidane, "I will erase you and your soul", refers to when the Garland of Final Fantasy IX attempted to destroy Zidane and take back the soul he had given him.

Garland's introduction to Tidus is, "Better you fall down fate's spiral", referring to Sin's cycle of destruction and rebirth in Final Fantasy X. His quote to Jecht, "Another prisoner of fate", refers to how Jecht became trapped within the cycle of Spira, similar to Garland.

Garland's EX Burst is named after the Soul of Chaos dungeons in the Dawn of Souls and 20th Anniversary editions of Final Fantasy. His three exclusive weapons are all weapons found in the Whisperwind Cove, another bonus dungeon in the aforementioned releases, and are named after a subset of axes that do additional damage to giant-type enemies.

Garland is the only villain fought twice in the same storyline. He is fought as a boss both at the beginning of Destiny Odyssey I and at the end - reflecting his role as the first and, in essence, final boss of Final Fantasy. Furthermore, Garland is the last villain fought in Shade Impulse before Chaos, in Chapter 3-5, again reflecting his role in Final Fantasy.

In Garland's conversation with Chaos in Shade Impulse, he states he was sent 2,000 years into the past to become Chaos himself, directly paralleling his actions in Final Fantasy. In Final Fantasy, Garland says he will lose all memory of the past in 2,000 years, reflected in Chaos's amnesia in Dissidia.

The forms Garland's sword transforms into reference the Four Fiends from Final Fantasy. The axe represents Lich, the twin swords represent Marilith, the lance represents Tiamat and the whip represents Kraken.

Garland's HP attacks are all attacks used by Chaos in the original Final Fantasy, and each uses the form of his sword corresponding to the Fiend of the attack's element—Earthquake uses the axe, Blaze uses the twin swords, Tsunami uses the whip, and Cyclone uses the lance. In Dissidia 012, Garland's fifth HP attack Flare uses the base greatsword form, reflecting that it is non-elemental.

In the Japanese version of Dissidia 012, Garland's "Thundaga" is named "Thunga". This is the original Japanese name of the high-tier lightning-type spell in Final Fantasy on the Famicom.

Garland's fighting pose is the same pose he takes right before fighting the Warriors of Cosmos in the opening FMV. This is also the same pose as his enemy sprite in the original game.

When facing Chaos, Chaos's opening quote alludes to the Time Loop.

Garland's recognition of the Warrior of Light in one of Cid's Reports may have been a reference to Garland's earlier defeat at the hands of the Warrior of Light in Final Fantasy.

Etymology

[view·edit·purge]A garland is a wreath of flowers worn on the head, usually given to great military heroes in ancient Greece and Rome, not unlike the medals of today are. They were also sometimes left on the graves of fallen soldiers. In reference to Garland, the name may be symbolic, as he was a great hero who had "fallen" (corrupted by evil), possible a reference to the original Garland being killed in the first dungeon the player completes in Final Fantasy. The name may also stem from a garland being something that forms a loop, alluding to the time loop in which the first Garland in Final Fantasy becomes involved.

Trivia

Both of Garland's voice actors (English and Japanese) also voiced Alex Louis Armstrong from another Square Enix project: Fullmetal Alchemist and its reboot Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

Garland has the highest base Attack and Defense in the game, with 112 Attack and 113 Defense at Level 100. In Dissidia 012 his stats are reduced to 111 Attack and 112 Defense.

Garland's alternate outfit is plagued by several graphical errors in Dissidia due to misaligned textures. These errors are not present in his alternate outfit's EX Mode, and are fixed in Dissidia 012.

Garland's Manikin, False Stalwart, appears thirty times in Dissidia, the most of any Manikin.

Garland is one of three characters to be fought four times as a main storyline boss, the others being Ultimecia and the Emperor.

Garland is the tallest of the Warriors of Chaos, standing just above Golbez and Exdeath.